Nova Albion and the Future of Fandom

[kevin_standlee]

I didn't hang around after the main convention ended around 5 PM. Too tired, too hungry again. Going to try to get to sleep early.

I had someone ask me yesterday, "How can we inject the energy and spirit at this steampunk convention back into Worldcons?" He's right about the issue. I remember Worldcons, when I started attending in them in 1984, as high-energy, high-excitement events. Now they're much less so.

I gave the person as long-winded answer to his question, but I think it boils down to a single, cold-hearted answer: "Some significant Worldcon SMOFS are going to have to die." Or at least retire from the field of active convention running and participation in Worldcon organization.

Don't misunderstand me. I'm not wishing death on anyone, neither literally nor figuratively. But to a great extent our collective conrunning brains at the Worldcon level are suffering from calcification of the neurons as we continue to keep things frozen into the form that we consider ideal, and in some individual cases, effectively working toward mummification, with a stated opinion that amounts to, "I want Worldcon and fandom to die when I do, and it must not change in the slightest until then, either."

It's not that we don't need experience. We do. What we need to do is not be straightjacketed by it. We need people who have the energy and drive to make events like Nova Albion and the other steampunk events and like the anime conventions want to work on general-SF/F events rather than getting discouraged by the entrenched interests who are more concerned with making sure that the Wrong Sort of Fan doesn't actually get involved. We certainly don't need the people making the decisions passing rules that effectively preclude those who actually are willing and able to get things done from even participating. (And that's not an academic, theoretical statement, as the WSFS Mark Protection Committee did exactly that this past year, even in the face of evidence that the members of the WSFS Business Meeting wanted something different.

Comments

[petrea-mitchell.livejournal.com]

The zeroth question should be "Do any of these younger fans even know about Worldcon?"

If people know about Worldcon, it will always find that new audience. If they don't, any further discussion of what's attracting or repelling them is pointless.

And I find, going to conventions with a younger crowd, that is the biggest thing I run into there. "Worldcon, what's that?" Heck, most of them don't know about their local sf convention. Or even cons that specifically cater to their interests.

The first year I went to Kumoricon, the local anime convention here in Portland, one of the committee members told me about going to Sakura-Con in Seattle and running into other people from Portland who wished they had an anime con to go to closer to home... when Kumoricon had already existed for several years.

This is not to point the finger at Worldcon organizers and say they are doing nothing. SDCC has had the extraordinary good fortune of being selected as a publicity venue by Hollywood, which in turn has generated tons of free media coverage. Dragon*Con has had the extraordinary good fortune of being in the backyard of what was the one and only general-news channel most of the US knew about for years and years. Worldcon's never been thrown a break like that.

[cherylmmorgan.livejournal.com]

Oh, you can point the finger alright. Kevin and I are being actively preventing from promoting Worldcon by people who do not want "the wrong sort of fan" to find out about it.

[jeff-morris.livejournal.com]

Feel free to quote or sing as needed. (http://jeff-morris.livejournal.com/94285.html)

[cherylmmorgan.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[auroraceleste.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I need a minute . . .



No, it's still there. I've got to say it.

WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?!?!

How do I join a movement to change this? It's crap, pure and simple.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Short answer: Come to the Business Meeting and vote into office people less likely to dig in their heels and fire the people who were actively promoting the Hugo Awards and repudiated their work.

[auroraceleste.livejournal.com]

Can I sit by you so you can tell me who to vote for?

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

There won't be much of a question as to who I support, as I intent to make a speech calling for people to vote for the candidates in question. Last year, I stood before the Business Meeting and said, in effect, "If you want more of the same things that I've been doing, and if you endorse how the Hugo Awards Marketing Committee has been run, vote for me and I'll work to continue it." I was (I'm told; the detailed results appear to have been suppressed, whether deliberately or because someone didn't think they were important) overwhelmingly returned to my seat on the MPC. The MPC then chose to ignore the results, did not return me to the MPC chairmanship, and imposed rules that made it impossible for Cheryl to accept re-appointment to the Hugo Awards Marketing Committee. In fact, I think the MPC has overstepped its authority and is trying to impose additional Hugo Award eligibility rules beyond those imposed by WSFS. I suggest that people who think this is so come to the Business Meeting and vote to order the MPC to recind the rule.

I've come to the conclusion that there are some people in WSFS for whom openness and transparency are something that other people have to do. I've done my best to actually live up to the same rules I expect others to abide by, but that perhaps just means I'm stupid.

A rather small number of people (five out of fifteen) were able to get their way in a classic example of a backroom deal. What they did was legal and within the rules. But two of those five people have terms coming up for re-election at Reno. Perhaps people looking for a change should take note. I'll write more on this subject as we get closer to the convention, because, frankly, if I make too much of an issue about it now, it will will have died out in a few weeks, as all of these things do. For now, I just think that people who are going to be at the Reno Worldcon and care about this need to be prepared to set aside the 1000-1300 period on the second, third, and maybe fourth days of the convention in order to actually make change happen. You have to be present to vote, and those people who show up are the ones who make a difference.